Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler How many Dish people does it take.....

to upgrade a 322 to a 722 and get me my HD programming?

Apparently a lot....

I will try to keep this to bullet points, but you all know how I like to tell a story...

Flash back to the middle of January, called Dish, said "Upgrade me!" under the special deal that they had going on.

Jump to early Feb, install date bumped UP from end of Feb to middle of Feb.

Install date comes 1 day after ice/snow storm. Installer can't even get up on roof, says that he will be back in 2 weeks to try again. (Note: I took a half day of vacation waiting for the install.)

New install date comes (another 1/2 day of vacation), and no installer. I call the installation company, and they said that the install was canceled because the installer (from 2 weeks prior) reported "No line of site." After an hour on the phone with them, they direct me to call Dish.

The next day, I call Dish, get dropped 3 times while being transfered to supervisors and people that can actually solve my problem. 2.5 hours later, I get the installation set back up, and talked them into honoring the original "deal" from January which is a manual credit on my account for 6 months...

Later that same day, I get a call from the installation company, and they canceled the order again quoting the original (wrong) notes about no line of site. I get them to wise up and they agree to send one of their "managers" to verify line of site via a "site survey".

Site survey happens 10 days ago, and the "manager" says "No problem. I can tell from here (the ground) that you are good to go." (Another 1/2 day of vacation shot for someone to tell me what I already knew.)

Today, installers (yes, 2 of them, one of which was in training, but I could smell light booze on his breath!) come at 11:30am (be there between 8 and noon they said), and they get to work. At 2:30PM they are "done" with the install, and my new 722 is installed and downloading the programming. They tested the signal strength to non-HD sat. 119 and get good signal strength, but don't test the other sats. I rush to work after using up 6 hours of vacation today.

I get home tonight, and the HD channels show up, but when I select them I get a "satellite signal lost" message. I check the signal strength to sat. 129 (HD sat) and it flickers between ZERO and NINE! Terrible signal! Another 45 minutes on the phone and they are coming back out on Friday between noon and 5!

Holy crap! I've lost 2.25 days of vacation already, plus hours and hours on the phone, plus it still isn't working yet, and I will kill another 4 hours this Friday waiting for them.

To top it off, I know darn well that I will have to call Dish each and every month for them to give me the correct credit to my account for the next 6 months (which I made sure they didn't start until AFTER I have working HD).

All because the original guy couldn't get on the roof to do the original install, and it was incorrectly documented as no line of site, and the guys today were in a hurry! Morons!

So how many did it take?
1 - First CS Rep at Dish to upgrade
2 - Dispatcher from Blue Sky Satellite
3 - Original installer from BSS
4 - Call to second dispatcher from BSS
5 - CS Rep (in India) for Dish who must have worked there for 1 day and disconnected me
6 - 2nd CS Rep (Southern gal) who I was making progress with and transferred me to someone who could override the cancellation.
7 - Person transferred to by #6, but when he was trying to get me to someone else to get me my discount, disconnected me
8 - 3rd CS Rep (India again), who must have started the same day as #5, transferred me to Dish tech support level 1. UGH - Hang up
9 - 4th CS Red (Southern guy) who passed me on to get the canceled install overridden.
10 - Gal that could override canceled install who transfered me to someone about the discount
11 - Guy that authorized my discount pricing like the deal that expired in January
12 - Dispatcher from BSS who called to let me know that they canceled my install again!
13 - 2nd Dispatcher from BSS who got me to a local manager
14 - Local manager who came out to do the site assessment
15 - Dish CS Rep who transferred me to get the cancellation overridden again.
16 - Dish person that overrode the cancellation, no need to get pricing deal as it was already documented in my account.
17 - Dispatcher at BSS that I called this morning at 7:30 AM to verify that they were coming
18 - 2nd BSS Dispatcher I called this morning at 11:25 AM asking where the installer is.
19 & 20 - The two installers that came today and hooked things up (wrong)
21 - BSS Dispatcher I talked to tonight to complain that they didn't test the HD and it isn't working
22 - Dish CS Rep that the BSS Dispatcher patched me though. I could hear him, but he couldn't hear me. Click
23 - Dish CS Rep that actually took my call and scheduled at tech support call for Friday so that they can correct the problems and get me my HD programming.

So as it stands, that is 23 people (plus who ever I talk to on Friday and the installer(s) that come), and I have the came available programming now that I did yesterday, but with DVR (which I already had elsewhere, and this DVR is more for HD recording).

And I bet they are the only ones avaiable for you as well, so you can't even tell them to ...well you know. I think you must be upto at least 8-9 months of free HD programming for all the hassles due to their ineptness(is that even a word, lol)

Ineptitude.

The quality of the Dish installers is very uneven dwpending on location.

I'm a Dish subscriber too, but still just with SD. My installation was pretty simple, and the installer was prompt, courteous, and did a pretty good job. Another installer that did the work on my previous home was even better. He really took a lot of time to get the dish dialed in perfectly and did a beautiful job on the cable runs. OTOH, the install job on my in-laws home looks like what a couple of guys would do on a Sunday afternoon with a 6 (or 12) pack between them. Lots of messy bundles of wires held together with twist-ties, cables draped loose over the roof, etc.

Since Dish & DirectTV contract out their install work, it entirely depends on the installers. Some are great, some are horrible.

A good friend has DirectTV HD and went through a similar process that you are going through. Just had a lot of issues getting the installers to show up when promised and to get everything working. It worked out in the end, but he went through a couple of months of missed appointments, mis-alignments, non-functioning HD channels, etc. He eventually had to talk directly with the company that did the install, instead of DirectTV.

I would threaten to cancel your service as that's about the only thing that seems to motivate service companies these days (TV, phone, etc). Not in a spiteful way, but be couteous about it. Tell them that you don't want to drop Dish, but you will be forced to switch back to Cable if they can't figure out your HD ASAP. See if that motivates them.

I like my cable!

Yeah, cable is convenient, however, to get 4 digital connections, all 4 with DVR, and one of those in HD, the cost for our local cable company is almost $100 more a month for the same package.

MediaComm sucks.

I have had dish for 6 years now and have upgraded the equipment about 3 times..have the 722 running now.

I would agree on some of the issues. It all depends on the installer guy showing up. some refused to install saying the cable in the house was old. Then there is always the issue of programming and packages :). Do check your account every quarter or so, they tend to change your address and god knows what they use it for.

I still love dish, now that all my HD works and no missing NBA and CSI for wifey.

Yeah, they're the cable company where I live too. I don't miss the snowy channels or the ever-increasing bill. Dish + Verizon DSL for me.

The only thing I really miss about cable was how well Tivo worked with it.

I just got told by my cable company that they don't care about my business. Essentially. I'll be switching soon...

UPDATE: The morons did it again. I am on my 5th half-day off (2.75 days in total now) of work for this install, and they did it again. They canceled the installation on me today because the installer was sick, but they never called to let me know. I had to call them after sitting here waiting for the last 3 hours.

So let's see. We are now at:
24 - BSS Installer who called in sick today
25 - BSS Dispatcher who didn't call me to let me know that it was canceled for the day.
26 - BSS CS Rep that I called after waiting 3 hours who told me that I am now rescheduled for next Friday.

I will be calling the day before in "scheduled" install now to make sure, as well as about an hour before my "time slot".

ARGH!

This is about the point when some people go berserk, buy a sword, and head the the dish installer office.

A sword?

Ooooo... Swords could be fun!

Have you considered just doing it yourself? I have known people who installed a dish system in a few hrs. from scratch. In 3 days you could have built your own dam dish from a pizza pan.

Update:
27 - BSS CS Rep that called me 2 days ago to "troubleshoot" over the phone. Needless to say, there was nothing to troubleshoot since the dish can't see the satellite. He told me that the notes put in by #14 above DID actually say to put a second dish on the roof and point to satellite 61.5 (which is what I wanted).
28 - BSS CS Rep I talked to today to verify the installer was coming out. I also verified that they were going to put a second dish up. It wasn't in the notes for the installer (idiots), but they looked back at the notes for #27 and #14 as well as when I talked to #21. They called the installer and let him know
29 - BSS Installer that hooked up the additional dish to point to 61.5.


YEAH!!! I HAVE HD NOW!!!!!

Now I have to call Dish and get all of my credits and see if they will do anything more since this cost me so much time and effort...

PS... I've already set up recordings for the LOTR series, King Kong, Spiderman, and others all in HD this weekend!

If you don't mind me asking, what was the total cost to upgrade? Anything other than the additional $10-$30/month that Dish charges for the HD packs?

Did you have to pay an upgrade fee to get the HD-DVR? Which DVR did you get? Curious if you're running with the new ViP722.

Just curious as I expect I'll be going through this myself in the next 4-6 months.

Respond via PM if you want, or just tell me to buzz off and call Dish myself.

Well, I originally signed up for the upgrade back in January when they ran a deal for existing customers. The deal was free HD tuner with DVR, and free installation, plus 6 months free HD programming (they only had the $20 package at the time, so it was all of their HD programming). I was required to pay $100 up front but would get $100 credit to my account after the installation. I asked about the 722, but it would have cost me $80 more that I would not get back.

After all of my troubles, I DID get the 722 because it was a hassle, but I had to cover $150 up front that they would credit me back. Also, the "deal" front January was "no longer in their system" so my $150 credit I need to ask them about, although it IS documented on my account. I also have to call about my $20 credit for the HD channels, which again is documented on my account. Basically, I get the same package deal, but with the 722 and no automated credits (I have to call each time) and I also got a ton of hassle... But holy crap, I just flipped to MHD (Music HD) and watched about 30 minutes of the Black Crows (don't really care about them) but it was impressive in both video AND audio. WOW!

So, keep checking with Dish on deals for existing customers. They don't happen every day, but I now know from experience that if you have ever had any issue with their service, and you can talk to someone a step above the customer service rep that answers the phone, you can negotiate with them.

30 - Dish Billing Rep (Tim) who made sure that I was getting my $150 credit (they had only given me $80 so I am glad I called) and who told me that I was set up for a $20 credit automatically for the next 6 months. I asked about "compensation" for my time and hassles due to their mistakes, and got nowhere. He passed me on to a person in Tech Support who he said could help there since it was issues with installation.

31 - Dish Tech Rep (Chris) Same drill, not much help. It took them 5 visits to do the installation, each being at least the full half day time window slot. The first was a no'go due to weather, but the guy should have known that when we got dumped by snow that he wouldn't be able to install, and he is the one that put in a "cancel" order by mistake causing all of the problems. And I know it would have cost me another half day after that for the actual installation, but that still left a little more than 1.75 days of vacation that I shouldn't have had to take. The guy was like, "Let me talk to my supervisor and we'll do what they tell me." Which it took him over TEN minutes to read all of the notes on my account about this, but it only took his "supervisor" less than TWO to read it? I don't think so. I knew he was lying so I asked to speak to a supervisor when I got nowhere.
31 - Dish Tech Supervisor (Caroline) who basically said the same thing, "There is nothing we can do, after all we are already honoring the offer that you were going to get in January." Duh, gee, you owed me that anyway... She wouldn't budge, and I was on the phone now for another hour (63 minutes) and in the end after much debating and her refusal to pass me on to her supervisor (plus I had to get going to drive my daughter to a friend's house), all she was willing to do was credit my account one DVR fee and the 2nd receiver fee for one month... Total value? $11.96 or something like that. Gee, thanks, that doesn't even cover the hour of time I spend on the phone just then.

I told my wife, and she was mad too, but at this point, I am just happy to be done with it, and I can put this 3 months of terrible service behind me.

So there you have it, it takes 31 people to get my upgraded with HD.

Nick,
Glad to hear you finally got your HD, unbelievable all those problems!
But now it's time to sit back and enjoy I'll be kicking back watching the Masters in HD this weekend.

Yeah. Looks like you must have done something terrible in a past life!

Sorry to hear about your continued troubles, but thanks for the good info about how the process went.

My wife (imagine that!) is itching to get an HD set so this upgrade might happen sooner than later for me.

Just keep in mind that if anyone gets HD from Dish, have them set you up to point to satellite 61.5 and NOT 129. They will try to point you to 129 since it requires only 1 dish. There are documents online from Dish themselves and even they say that the 129 satellite is running out of fuel and it is estimated to be unusable by most to all of the U.S. by the end of 2008.

This doesn't pertain to the SD from Dish, does it?

Nope. 129 and 61.5 are for HD. They have 110 and 119 for SD, in the midwest anway, that are pretty solid for SD.

Gah... reading this stuff I'm beginning to sway from the idea of switching to Dish.

Now that you've straightened me up on how to install speaker feet....

I wouldn't completely base Dish ownership on this one thread. A whole lot of the problems here has to do with the local installer. Granted, it's Dish's responsibility since they're contracting out the work.

I've had Dish for almost 3 years, and have no complaints about it (other than that their DVRs are NOT as good as Tivo, no matter whay they say). It's been a fine experience, and I have no desire to go back to cable (other than Tivo...). My installer was prompt & courteous and did a great job. I'm just a SD user, but the picture & sound quality is definitely superior to our local cable company. Not to mention that Dish is about 30%-40% less than cable in my town.

Yeah, that's the motivation. I'd still be using my TiVo with it.

Not to sound like a smart a$$, but this is why I have always done my own installs. It can be a pain, but I am on MY timetable - not theirs. Some have gone very smoothly, others, not so much. On average it takes ~2 to 3 hours.

Yeah, I know that a Tivo's will function with Dish. The problem is the dual-tuners. We were content with cable + single tuner Tivo years ago. But after going to our Dish DVR w/ dual tuners, I don't know how my family would go back to just a single-tuner Tivo. I don't miss the 'which show do we value more?' debates. Having a dual-tuner DVR has solved that 99.9% of the time.

I know that Tivo now has dual-tuner models that work quite nicely with cable. I've installed one for my parents. But I'm pretty sure you can still only use one of the tuners with Dish.

If someone can tell me otherwise, I will buy another Tivo today !

You are absolutely correct, at least based on what I read about 6 months ago.

O' course, I'm sticking with my old 1 tuner Series2 with a lifetime subscription.

Yeah, but with the promise of a "free installation" I thought it would have been the best way. LIke they say, "Hindsight is 20/20."

Oh, this is weird. I just looked at Dish's site, and it looks like they're only offering DVR packages now. That's annoying. Same price as regular, but I don't want to use their stinkin' DVR!

See now, my wife and I love their DVR... Of course we've never used any other DVR, but what does that have to do with it!